Turn all short aliases into long form

[weiji14]

Description of proposed changes

To make things more readable, we'll shift our documentation to use long form arguments by default. Starting from the common aliases R, J, B, U, CPT, G and W. Will move on to all others spread across across the API Reference page.

See also upstream GMT docs at https://docs.generic-mapping-tools.org/latest/std-opts.html.

New looking documentation for this branch can be previewed at https://pygmt-git-longaliascommonopts.gmt.now.sh/api/index.html

Files to change:

• helpers/decorators.py
• base_plotting.py
• figure.py
• gridding.py
• mathops.py
• modules.py

Fixes #473

Reminders

• Run make format and make check to make sure the code follows the style guide.
• Add tests for new features or tests that would have caught the bug that you're fixing.
• Add new public functions/methods/classes to doc/api/index.rst.
• Write detailed docstrings for all functions/methods.
• If adding new functionality, add an example to docstrings or tutorials.

[seisman]

Perhaps we should update all the short-form arguments (if they have aliases) in this PR, not to update them in multiple PRs. I can help with it if you also agree.

[weiji14]

Perhaps we should update all the short-form arguments (if they have aliases) in this PR, not to update them in multiple PRs. I can help with it if you also agree.

Might as well. I'll work on gridding.py, mathops.py first since I wrote those. Do you want to work on base_plotting.py?

[seisman]

Might as well. I'll work on gridding.py, mathops.py first since I wrote those. Do you want to work on base_plotting.py?

OK.

[weiji14]

Might as well. I'll work on gridding.py, mathops.py first since I wrote those. Do you want to work on base_plotting.py?

OK.

Alright, gridding.py and mathops.py are done, and I've handled the -n interpolation short alias in sampling.py too. Now moving on to modules.py, and gmt info seems to be a tricky one, as you mentioned in #147. Should I just turn the short aliases into long ones for now and ignore the fact that it produces strings like -Rw/e/s/n or -Tzmin/zmax/dz which go against the essence of this PR?

[seisman]

Should I just turn the short aliases into long ones for now and ignore the fact that it produces strings like -Rw/e/s/n or -Tzmin/zmax/dz which go against the essence of this PR

Yes, just ignore it.

[weiji14]

I've only changed B to frame here for basemap. GMT.jl uses map_scale for L, rose for Td and compass for Tm (see https://www.generic-mapping-tools.org/GMT.jl/latest/#GMT.basemap), do we want to go with those?

[seisman]

Yes to me.

[weiji14]

Do you want to take a look at https://pygmt-git-longaliascommonopts.gmt.now.sh/api/index.html to see if we missed any stray short aliases (other than the ones we agreed not to change)?

P.S. Not a user facing change, but we should also update all the tests to use the long alias names at some point.

[seisman]

Do you want to take a look at https://pygmt-git-longaliascommonopts.gmt.now.sh/api/index.html to see if we missed any stray short aliases (other than the ones we agreed not to change)?

Made a small fix. Now it's good to me.

P.S. Not a user facing change, but we should also update all the tests to use the long alias names at some point.

Yes, I agree.